Staten Island Boys' Football League continues to expand

Staten Island Advance/Hilton FloresThere will be more upgrades to the Staten Island Boyâs Football complex in Travis; some of the improvements include new lights on both of its fields, as well as new fencing.

ALL SHORES -- One would think a new state-of-the-art field would be enough to keep a youth sports complex happy for awhile.

But for the Staten Island Boys’ Football League (SIBFL) in Travis, that’s just the beginning.

The league completed work at the end of last summer on a new artificial turf field and youngsters from all over Staten Island had the chance to play on the premier surface during the past year.

Now comes word that SIBFL is looking to make more improvements to its facility, located at 1475 Travis Ave. at the intersection of Travis and South avenues.

“We’re going to put new (artificial) turf on the other grass field and we’ll be putting new lights on both fields,” said league president Joe Calabrese. “We’re doing repairs on the whole complex and we’ll be putting a fence around the whole complex. Also, with the agreement with LandTek (the company installing the turf field), they’re going to re-seed the practice field, put sprinklers in and feed the grass the right way.”

The addition of the new lights will help the league save money in the long-run. Currently, the lights are about 25 years old and will be replaced with lighting that is more energy efficient.

Currently, just the one new turf field has lights, so the addition of another field with lights will allow the league to accommodate a larger number of football players who hail from all over the borough and come to the Travis site to learn to play the game.

Calabrese said this past fall, the league had over 600 players; another 480 played in the spring league.

“My goal when I took over (as president) two years ago is to make this league the best in all of New York State,” said Calabrese. “We have the property and we have a great facility. We’re trying to give Staten Island something to be proud of.”

Calabrese said the renovations are expected to cost about $900,000. He hopes work will be started by the end of the summer. 

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</sub>JUST THE BEGINNING<rr>While renovating the complex is a great achievement, Calabrese said it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The president explained there are plans to improve and expand the league’s programs, including its Challenger division, which serves children with special needs.

“We started the Challenger division and we’re looking to expand that. We had a lot of interaction of our current players and coaches with that division,” said Calabrese. “It really helped a lot and it was great to see those kids out there. You could see the smiles on their faces and they really enjoyed it.”

The loop currently has a lower division for 7- to 9-year-olds, but that will change with the creation of a division in the fall solely for 7-year-olds.

“Now we want to try just a strictly 7-year-old division to give the kids more reps. We did a B team, which worked out well, but it will be nice for them to get more reps,” said Calabrese.

The president said the league started a cheerleader program and hopes to increase participation in that as well.

The third phase of upgrading the league to become one of the premier youth football leagues in the state will be the creation of a Staten Island Boys’ Football League Hall of Fame.

“In February, we’ll have our first Hall of Fame class. We’ve been around since 1959, so we have a lot of history,” said Calabrese. “We have a lot of players who played high-level football. But we also have a lot of successful business people who have done well in their lives that helped set the basis and set the characteristics of the league.”

He said the league has not begun finalizing nominees for the inaugural class.

For more information, visit www.sibfl.com or call 718-761-4780. Calabrese can be reached at jcalabrese@sibfl.com; donors can contact Rosana Salaris at rsalaris@sibfl.com, and Hall of Fame nominations can be sent to Stephen Martinelli at smartinelli@sibfl.com. 

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</tail>Michael Anderson is a sports reporter for the Staten Island Advance. He can be reached at manderson@siadvance.com. 